2.12 Roman Salute

GREENLANDTHEORY.COM The idiom "When in Rome, do as
the Romans" is quite profound in respect to the Roman Salute, a
gesture in which the arm is held out forward straight, with palm down, and
fingers touching. In some versions, the arm is raised upward at an angle, while
in others the hand is held out parallel to the ground. Historical depictions of
the Roman Salute are scarce but can be found in the statue of Augustus
of Prima Porta, as well as on the Decius Adventus coin which depicts the adventus, a ceremony in which the Roman emperor was formally
welcomed into a city after a military campaign. The Roman rhetorician Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35 – c. 100) describes the Roman Salute in his “Institutio Oratoria”:
“Experts do not permit the hand to be raised above the level of the eyes or
lowered beneath the breast; to such a degree is this true that it is considered
a fault to direct the hand above the head or lower it to the lower part of the
belly. It may be extended to the left within the limits of the shoulder, but beyond
that it is not fitting.” Although the Roman Salute lay dormant since the
alleged Fall of the Roman Empire,
it was revitalized in Jacques-Louis
David's painting entitled “The Oath of the Horatii” (1784). The
painting shows the three sons of Horatius swear on their swords that they will
defend Rome to the death. Shortly after the painting was popularized in Europe,
the Roman Salute was adopted by the governments of America, Germany and Italy, albeit
under different names (i.e., the Bellamy Salute, the Nazi Salute, and the Italian Roman Salute).

Nazi SaluteOriginally called the “Hitler Salute” (i.e., “Hitlergruß”), the Nazi Salute (i.e.,
the Roman Salute) was
first used by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1923. A person performing the salute would say
"Heil Hitler!" (Hail
Hitler!), "Heil, mein Führer!"
(Hail, my leader!), or "Sieg
heil!" (Hail victory!). Similar to the Roman Salute, the Nazi
Salute functioned both as an expression of commitment to the State as well as a
declaration of loyalty to the outside world. The Nazi Salute became compulsory for
all public employees of Germany following a directive issued by Reich Minister
of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on July 13, 1933, exactly one day before an outright ban on
all political parties not affiliated with the Nazi Party. Initially, members of
the German military were only required to use the Hitler Salute while engaging
in non-military encounters or while singing the Horst Wessel Lied and German National Anthem. However, after the unsuccessful Hitler
Assassination Plot of July 20, 1944,
the military forces of the Third Reich were ordered to replace the standard
military salute with the Hitler Salute (i.e., the Roman Salute). Interestingly,
the use of the Nazi Salute is currently a criminal offense in Germany, the
Czech Republic, and Austria. In Germany, Section
86a of the German Penal Code provides
for punishment of up to three years in prison for anyone using the salute,
unless of course it is used for artistic, scientific, or educational purposes.

Italian Roman Salute In the 1920’s, Italian fascists adopted the
Roman Salute as part of their quest to revitalized
Italy based on the model and spirit of the Roman Empire. The Roman Salute
was first used by the Prince of Montenevoso, Gabriele D'Annunzio, when Italian military occupied Rijeka, Croatia in 1919. Like other neo-Imperial rituals utilized
by D'Annunzio, the Roman Salute became part of the Italian fascist movement's symbolic repertoire. On January 31, 1923, the Italian
Ministry of Education instituted a ritual honoring the Italian flag in schools
using the Roman Salute. By December 1, 1925, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini ordered
that all state civil administrators of Italy were required to use it. Shortly
thereafter, Achille Starace, the Italian Fascist Party
secretary, pushed for a measure to make the use of the Roman Salute compulsory,
denouncing hand shaking as bourgeois. By
1932, the Roman Salute was adopted as the substitute for the handshake. As of
August 19, 1933, the Italian military was ordered to use the Roman Salute
whenever an unarmed detachment of soldiers was called on to render military
honors for the King of Italy or Mussolini himself. Shortly after World War II,
fascist symbols along with the Roman Salute were banned by the postwar Italian
Constitution.

Bellamy Salute
The Bellamy Salute is
the American version of the Roman Salute. It was first demonstrated on October 12, 1892 after Francis Bellamy published its instructions for the "National School
Celebration of Columbus Day". Shortly thereafter, the Bellamy Salute was ordered
to accompany the Pledge
of Allegiance in the United States. Because of
the obvious similarities between the Bellamy Salute and the Nazi
Salute, U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt ordered that the
hand-over-the-heart gesture be used during the Pledge of Allegiance and the U.S.
National Anthem, instead of
the Bellamy Salute. This change in policy was officially instituted by the U.S.
Congress after it adopted the “Flag Code”
on June 22, 1942. Unlike the countries of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany
and Italy, the Bellamy Salute (i.e., the Roman Salute) is not illegal in the
United States.